Crawling
by CorruptCreature
Summary: Middle of book 3, When the gang stops in the woods for a couple days, what evil stalks them? And why does Aang seem less and less like himself as time passes? M rating for language and Violence of an epic scale! A Kataang fic with a little Tokka thrown in.
1. Creeping Dark

**A/N: Reviews are appreciated, as are critiques. Flames will be scoffed at, as you need not read, so why leave a comment? However I do accept ideas for new stories either plot or pairings, just send me a PM or leave a comment, whichever will get your idea across and i'll get back to you with a link once the first chapter is up. Ciao amici.**

Chapter 1

Creeping Darkness

In the dream he floated within the nothingness of black, it wasn't even space; there were no stars. It was as if the entirety of everything had vanished leaving nothing but a dark blank canvas. Suddenly Aang was tossed to what could only be described as solid ground and a shadow with eyes of white comes at him, surrounds him from all sides as an oval with misshapen and seeming torn edges like an old cloth and collapses it's immense form upon the young avatar. When it lifts up off of him to this creature the Avatar becomes nothing but a helpless puppet, vine-like blackness bind his ankles and wrists. The shock being too much, he awakes with a scream.

But the usual friends who comfort Aang whenever he awakes with fright in his heart are not there, instead he is at the edge of a cliff and Aang sees before himself is nothing but black sky and pitch in front of his eyes, with no clear direction or point of reference to which way the others are, Aang sends a blue flare into the night with a powerful punch to the air, it arcs and dies away, and he waits. Hoping someone comes.

An orange flaming flare he recognizes as Zuko's shoots up roughly an hour's walk away. He hears Appa's roar almost ten minutes after Zuko's flare dies, with Sokka and Katara being the first to call my name. "Aang!" they called as Appa lands near me. Katara jumps off the saddle and hugs me tightly. He hears Sokka's sword being drawn slowly in the dark, and Zuko suddenly appears as he lights his face and body with the glow of orange flame illuminating the darkness.

"What happened?" Katara asked with a worried tone all her own.

"I think he was sleep walking." Zuko said looking at the soles of his feet, they were clearly scratched and pebbles still clung to the heels and soles of his feet where he obviously applied the most pressure; clearly he hadn't been running from anything.

"Please no more adventures Aang, we're just getting to the next village." Toph's voice rang out from the top of Appa's saddle; she sounded tired and consequently somewhat annoyed at his disappearance.

The next day, Katara decided to do a healing session to see if she could figure out what went wrong last night. They had retired to their earthen tent, the floor lined with pelts and a hammock served as their bed, fitting really, Aang said it reminded him of floating on air currents on his glider and Katara was reminded of the sea and her father, as hammocks served as the beds on water tribe ships. For this though, Katara needed a stationary place to work with Aang, so while Aang laid on the floor Katara knelt over him. She kept feeling something at the base of his spine, some kind of foreign energy. "Aang, I don't think what happened to you was a result of anything to do with your health…" To her this was obvious, as was the case with all their healing sessions from various ailments and injuries, with his shirt off she noticed his smallish arms of a boy his age but with the definition and musculature of an earthbender.

"Oh well that's a relief." Aang sighed deeply. Then he realized something. "What happened to me the other night, do you have an idea?" He asked simply.

"Well see that's the thing." Katara pulled on the energy at the base of his spine a little. "Feel that?"

Aang winced in pain. "Yeah." He responded trying to shut out the remaining twinge.

"That's not you Aang, it's something else…." Katara told him simply "I think it's alive." She cringed at her words, this made no sense at all.

"What do you mean, like a spirit?" He asked

"I think it's possible that with your last trip to the spirit world, you brought something back with you." Katara's voice was serious and concerned; this was the Avatar she was talking to. "Whatever this thing is." She continued, rubbing her eyes from lack of sleep as she spoke. "It must be powerful indeed to be able to overshadow you in such a manner and be able to lie dormant like this, almost as if it bonded to your soul." Katara hugged him from behind. "It'll be okay though, you've come face to face with some of the most fearsome spirits there are, and you've come back relatively unscathed." She smiled weakly. He just let out a small laugh.

Katara took a step back in shock and cringed "How are you laughing, aren't you worried?" Katara asked slightly incensed.

He just shrugged and, assuming Katara had finished her analysis on him began putting his shirt back on. "You said I met the most fearsome spirits there are _face to face_, I remembered Koh." He smiled.

"Glad you're entertained." She suddenly got the joke and now felt like laughing with him, she laughed quietly. He smiled again at her and walked over to where she now stood; their faces a couple feet apart only. He caressed her cheek; she just placed her hand over his wanting to touch him as she herself leaned into his touch, his affection.

Suddenly she felt overwhelmed. Her bottom lip trembling as she felt tears come. "Hey..." Aang cooed, trying to calm her. "Katara look at me, La…please." Aang had called her La after the ocean spirit, as a term of great respect as his waterbending teacher after the war ended, as their romance developed he began to call her 'La' when he wanted to be extremely serious or loving towards her.

"Aang I…" Her words caught in her throat as she vented to herself now angry. "I know you can't help being the Avatar." she choked through her tears. "It's just sometimes I can't deal with the constant danger that kind of duty brings with it." He hugged her. "If something happened to you… I don't-" She stopped as Aang just rubbed her back gently, trying to reinforced his words to her. "It'll be okay, it always is La… even when I almost died in Ba Sing Se, you brought me back. Also back when you first saw me enter the avatar state when I fell off Zuko's ship in the South Pole. I here your voice, and everything else is blocked out… I tell myself I have to get back to her I have to save her… my will to save you saved me more than a few times actually." They broke the embrace and Katara held his hands in hers, not wanting to be apart.

She laughed as she dried her tears, "Yeah." She admitted. They sat in their hut and talked politics and waterbending. Until finally the sun started to set, then set to go to bed.

**A/N: Chapter 2 soon to come guys just a couple days or so perhaps sooner, I have to work like everyone else, plus I'm about to start watching Neon Genesis Evangelion. The next chapters won't be as boring... I promise.**


	2. Fallen Night

Katara had woken up before him. Rubbing her eyes she quickly remembered that he'd said he wanted to sleep in today. She got up as quietly as possible without rocking their hammock too much, he seemed dead almost and if it wasn't for the fact that she could see his chest rise and fall.

Katara had hung a cloth over the front of their tent last night given the fact that she'd be trapped inside the tent in the early morning, as Toph earthbending or her freezing and subsequently shattering the slab that marked the front of the tent would risk Aang waking up.

She found them all there at the fire they had built with a circle of rocks, dining on various berries and eggs, Zuko had also flash fried some sausage. Of which the last piece Toph and Sokka were fighting over batting one another in the face as each went for the piece of meat sitting on a semi flat rock that had obviously had been used as Zuko's broiling station. _Luckily they were out of earshot of the tents._ Katara thought with a smirk.

"I said let it go!" Toph spat.

"Toph I had my hand on it first so it's mine!" Sokka shoved her off the log they sat on. Katara had the good sense to sit with Zuko on the log he sat on. Of which created a right angle on one corner of the fire pit.

After a brief moment of silence as Sokka figured out that in his desperate attempt to get the sausage by pushing Toph to the ground, she had actually maintained an iron like grip on it and had successfully snatched it. She quickly got to her feet, kissed him on the lips, and bolted into the forest. Laughing maniacally as she teasingly sing-songed. "Mine now, fuck you, mine now." Trailing off as she jogged away.

His eyes followed her, evidently hungry in other ways that Katara nor Zuko wanted to think about. "She wants meat does she? Well I've give her-"

"Right here." Katara interjected waving her arms violently to get her point across. She shuddered as she saw him sprint after his girlfriend. The two benders just exchanged looks of discomfort. "I have now heard things I cannot unhear." Katara told her friend dryly.

"No kidding, I don't think I'll look at sausage the same way again." Zuko smirked and she chuckled at this, enjoying his sense of humor. She poked at the fire for a minute or two as they sat in silence. Zuko had made a plate of food for Katara, mostly just ostrich horse eggs with a little salt and some other spices she couldn't place. After she had finished her meal, she set the plate down with Zuko's.

"So how is he?" Zuko asked finally.

"It's strange, as though he's being overshadowed by something, I don't know, a spirit maybe?" Katara explained, but still being analytical of her own words.

"Spirit world is too risky I assume?" Zuko added, rubbing his chin pensively.

"Yeah, Aang going to the spirit world now means he'd be exposing himself to attack as if he'd gone into the avatar state but with no way of defending himself, so if his spirit is attacked there, we risk losing the Avatar for good." Katara ran her fingers through her hair and sighed heavily.

"We're too deep in Fire Nation territory to seek outside help either." The young firebender advised. "It's up to you I suppose." Zuko shrugged, not knowing what else to tell her. At this however she glared at him for a moment got to her feet and started pacing.

"Right right, I know." Katara scoffed exasperated. "I'm the waterbending healer!" She raised her voice to almost a yell.

"No Katara I meant-" Zuko tried to get a word in raising his palm sheepishly, now feeling guilty that he might be responsible for waking up Aang indirectly.

"What Zuko? If I can't heal him no one can?" Katara spat sarcastically. "That's a nice heavy burden to place on my shoulders Zuko but it feels a little light, add mothering the next line of airbenders that haven't been around in a hundred years and I think I'll be all set!" Her words dripped like acid from her mouth and she was on the verge of tears.

"Katara!" He finally yelled so she could hear him over her meteor like rant.

"What?" She yelled in retort, she was out of breath unblinking and her expression hard, waiting for whatever the fuck he wanted to say. All he did was silently get to his feet and put a hand on her shoulder.

"You're his girlfriend Katara, he needs his mind taken off of things." Zuko began; Katara just quickly hugged him not knowing what to say. Gratitude was all she had right now.

Katara then heard hurried footsteps that she knew belonged to her brother and Toph. Katara quickly released Zuko slightly embarrassed.

"We're going to go back to silently hating each other right?" Zuko asked rolling his eyes.

"That's correct." The waterbender told him. Sokka and Toph just ran to the log they both had occupied previously. Suddenly Sokka lifted Toph onto his shoulders. Toph then let out a sharp yelp as she was placed at the base of his neck.

"Sword hilt! Sword hilt!" Sokka quickly lifted her up and used one of her dangling legs to knock the hilt unceremoniously to his opposite shoulder for the brief moment it took Toph to get situated. She smiled.

"I fucking love this!" She exclaimed not caring who heard.

"I said you would." Sokka laughed.

"That's a very nice ostrich-horse you have there… Lady Bei Fong." Katara said the last part with the most evil smirk in her life, as she knew the Blind Bandit hated her proper house title.

"Silence fleshy mortal! For today I am tall… and for the second time this morning I am sexually satisfied." Toph fist pumped with one arm and laughed.

Katara just buried her face in her hands and shuddered. "The visions, make them stop." Katara said dryly.

"That'll teach you to call me by my house title." Toph laughed maniacally.

"Hey guys." Aang called out sleepily from behind. Which snapped everyone back to reality. The avatar in fact was not himself. "How long have I been asleep?" Nobody said a word, but Aang looked like he hadn't gotten sleep in days. _Did he sleep walk again?_ Katara thought immediately. She quickly ruled this out as an impossibility when considering she herself was a light sleeper, and the difficulty he would have had with getting out of their hammock without waking her in the night also was a factor. Clearly this thing whatever it was, was feeding on him; But why?

"It's almost midday Aang, don't worry about it." Sokka told his friend. Sokka quickly put Toph down on the ground and came over to where the avatar stood. Sokka wrapped an arm under Aang's hip and putting his arm over his neck took the brunt of his weight, taking Aang's staff was worn and had a thin layer of dust on the end he'd driven into the ground. Sokka cringed, Aang was using his staff as a crutch, something he'd never does out of respect for its intended use as an instrument of airbending. This would be like Sokka hitting his sword against trees or stones. The first thing Sokka suddenly felt was a strain on his throat, he couldn't breathe. The avatar was choking him with a single hand. When he looked to the avatar's face to tell him to release him, he saw not the kind grey eyes he'd come to trust from his young friend. Instead the entirety of both eyes had become black except for a small white dot in each, which Sokka knew were staring directly at him, because every so steadily he began to hear what he knew was impossible… Yue was screaming.


	3. Depths

"Not true, not true, not true…" Over and over again was his mantra as Yue's screams of agony and pain pierced his mind like needles being driven in with sledgehammers; Sharp and extremely intense and jolting. This was all he could do to keep his mind in one piece as he saw images of Yue's spirit being torn from her body. _Yue didn't die like this, she was more than willing to become to the moon to give her life back to her savior. _Sokka thought rationally as he continued his mantra. Suddenly his visions and Yue's screams ceased, and the warrior's mind snapped back to the reality of Aang's grip on his neck and the horrified looks on the other's faces.

"I'll ask you once." Toph growled as she began encasing her fists in earth. "Put him down." Toph finalized menacingly.

"Don't be foolish girl." The voice was Aang's but it was distorted and raspy, like he had lost his voice while screaming. "I control the most powerful being in the spirit world… or this world!" Suddenly, Toph's stone fists dissolved into pebbles hit her all simultaneously in the chest, knocking her to the ground a few feet away, Katara rushed over to see if she was hurt, she had broken two ribs and fractured a third as Katara felt around the area where Toph got hit. "Toph stay here." Katara told her and the girl nodded reluctantly.

The spirit's gaze then turned to Zuko. Who stood his ground, he took a stance, putting one leg was behind the other, making his chest harder to hit from the front as his shoulders followed suit. "So you have his bending abilities… good. Just means my friend won't be as hurt when I finally beat you out of him."

Sokka, hearing Zuko's words, knew he wouldn't allow the firebender to die like this either. With his last bit of strength as he felt his throat being crushed. He raised his hands to the airbender's arm that were preoccupied with ending his life.

In a flash Sokka put his right palm on the elbow of the arm and the left he pushed the inside of the wrist to break free of the spirit's hold. Zuko rushed in to join Sokka they nodded to one another, and the two attacked together. Zuko using all his ninja like prowess as the blue spirit and Sokka using all his unarmed techniques taught to him as a small boy in the water tribe.

Toph's weakened body then came hurtling in between the two warriors, encased in a suit of earth.

After about a minute of barrage after barrage of blows from both boys being effortlessly blocked by Toph's same stone fist technique. A stone fist then caught Sokka's leg as he went to deliver a roundhouse kick to one of Aang's shoulders. All it took was Sokka being thrown like a rag doll by his leg about twenty feet away for him to be too tired to continue. Katara rushed over and set to healing him, his leg already started to show bruising.

Suddenly Katara remembered Aang's words to her when this first started. _I here your voice, and everything else is blocked out… I tell myself I have to get back to her I have to save her… _Katara in that moment hadn't been paying attention to the fight that was still ensuing and Zuko suddenly came flying backwards along with a gust of wind clearly generated by airbending, knocking Katara away from Sokka and into a nearby tree.

"Aang." she murmured. "AANG!" Katara screamed. She got to her feet in a flash and started walking towards him.

"Stop or they die." The voice commanded. Aang raised an arm, his fingers contorted at a weird angle… _like a waterbending form but… wait no that's not possible! _Katara knew at once what was happening when she heard Sokka and Zuko's anguished cries behind her and she refused to believe it. "How are you doing this? How are you bloodbending in the middle of the day?"

The voice just laughed. "All this power resides within him and you have yet to grasp a small part… it's the same way he can bend all four elements, his power resides not with his chi but stems from the spirit world itself. That is why he is the Avatar and why we sprits may come and go as we please."

"Aang? Are you there?" Instead of commanding and hard like Toph, her tone was one she only used when talking to Aang when things seemed hopeless. "You need to let them go." She continued. Suddenly Zuko and Sokka dropped to the ground, both moaning in pain.

"Katara." Aang's voice came back for a brief moment, his expression turned soft and confused. Like he was lost. "It's dark…Katara!"

"Aang stay with me, stay-." Suddenly she felt the familiar feelings of the puppetry, as though someone was suspending her whole body from just her skin. She was being bloodbended and controlled once again like before with Hama, and just like before it hurt more than anything she had ever experienced she winced as her arms felt like they were being torn off, tendon by tendon… in reality she knew her blood was simply being forced into her forearms and hands. _Don't shut out the pain it'll only make it worse when you can't anymore, just_ _keep calm and rationalize what you are experiencing. _Just like Sokka had taught her how to resist torture.

"KATARA!" Zuko screamed wanting to help her. Suddenly a rock wall just waist high appeared in front of them. He turned to the half conscious earthbender. "What are you doing?"

"If we break the sprit's concentration on Katara and attack him, he could snap her neck before we could do anything, or he could just capture us instead, then we're all dead." Toph told him simply.

"He can't control Aang for long, he's pushed his luck by staying out this long, Katara will be fine." Zuko's tone sounded resolute. Toph and Sokka just stood there. Waiting for an absolution. Zuko knew with being bloodbended he had no chance of winning or even connecting a single blow. But he wasn't about to watch this. "We can't just stand here." Zuko shouted.

"We have to." Sokka told him, he sounded almost numb. Zuko however, knew his friend to be as tactical as himself always analyzing every move in a given situation. There were no winning moves, "Katara is the only thing in this world that can save the Avatar, we loose him and we've lost everything. Aang is more important than me, or you, even Katara or me. I don't know what it is about her, but he's drawn to her like a butterfly-moth to candlelight." Sokka just stood there, watching the scene unfold.

"I hope you're right." Zuko replied pensively.

She could barely think through her pain, unable to rationalize it anymore she decided one thing… she had a mission, she needed to keep talking to him. "I hope you realize, there is nothing you can do to me that will bring you satisfaction, I will not scream, and I will not give you anything you desire." Katara said quietly.

"That's a challenge I'm happy to accept." Aang's face then grinned. And slowly, Katara's wrist started to turn ever so slightly. "You won't feel anything at first, then you'll start to wish for death."

"Aang we need your help… follow me and come back." Katara continued, refusing to acknowledge the spirit's banter and continued calling to Aang softly. "Aang… It's Katara." Aang's eyes and arrow flickered white and then returned to their original form. "Katara." said the avatar state pensively, the low rumble of a voice, every avatar speaking at once through a single body…connected.

"WHAT? NO!" The spirit's voice yelled. His arrows and eyes flashed white for a longer time. "Your time on this plane of existence has ceased, be expelled spirit." The avatar state commanded. Katara was released from the hold that the spirit had. She clamored to the ground and began to crawl back towards her brother and two friends, Sokka and Zuko both rushed to her side and carried her by the arms ten feet back behind Toph's rock wall.

"NO!" the voice echoed. "Even two hundred years later you interfere with my family's birthright!" It spat with increasing fury, as it knew it's time was nearly over. "You dare dismantle my legacy!" Zuko's eyes then went wide with disbelief. _This can't be! _His eyes said.

The arrows and eyes of the young airbender flicked once more as the avatar roared. "Your battle with the avatar is over, be gone from this world spirit!" The arms of the avatar then made the symbol for yin/yang at chest level, both hands facing palm to palm horizontally with the fingers slightly curved.

"Impudence! I AM SOZIN, the true Firelord!" A glowing white light then started to form in the avatar's hands. "What's-." And for the next few seconds, Sozin yelled like a rabid dog.

His screams died out after a few seconds, and Aang's tattoos and eyes were their normal colors again. Aang dropped to his knees and fell backwards, unable to stand or sit up.

"Aang!" Katara ran over to him in slow motion, her heart pounding in her chest, fearing the worst. Was the avatar lost to the world? Had Sozin succeeded in destroying the enemy of his son? All at once Katara dropped to her knees and bended immediately, emptying every drop of water in her water skin to heal him. The water began to glow and moments later Aang shifted his weight as he lifted his arm to his head in pain. He then saw Katara and immediately wrapped his arms around her and hugged her.

"I heard your voice." He told her with a sigh. "It led me to Roku and the other avatars."

"She did good, using the technique that I taught her." Sokka stated proudly. Katara chuckled with tears in her eyes. Zuko and Toph just rolled their eyes. She was just happy to have everyone alive.


End file.
